Practical Magic Blog Party!

Fall is on the way and I’m ready for a little spooky fun! This party is inspired by the movie “Practical Magic” – one of my favorites.

 

 

 

Cook up some potions!

 

 

Grab your broom, cat and pointy hat and check it out!

 

 

 

Meow!

More Studio Happenings

A beautiful sunset, the July rains are here.  I’m still working on organizing my studio after redecorating which is why I had to get this stuff out of the yard…

 

Ugh, what a mess!

 

But a homely little shelf helps and I’ll cover the front with fabric to hide the plastic boxes – the recent WBC studio tour has inspired me to hide as many of my storage boxes as possible. So many beautiful vintage style studios had no visible plastic.

 

 

How nice to be back at work!

 

 

The Sea Nymph pendant from the original studio posting is now a necklace…

 

in shades of sea green, gray, bronze and antique copper…

 

on the back of the pendant is a cute frog.

 

 

More pendants.

 

 

This is a necklace of paper, fiber and vintage beads I made a while back – it’s studio decor when I’m not wearing it.

Now, off to make stuff!

Happy Birthday…

To the USA, and…

 

Brownie, who is three years old.  I don’t know his actual birthday – he was adopted from the local humane society. It all started one October when there was so much trash in our yard it was time for a trip to the dump. The humane society is next to the dump and my husband made the suggestion to visit the animals and of course I want to take every one home. My dear Blackie had died some months earlier and for the first time in thirty-five years I didn’t have a dog (or three) so there was certainly room in our home for four more paws. Well at the humane society there was a littler of puppies – they had been dumped by the river with nothing to eat but grass and twigs – and one special puppy came home with me, Brownie. With his first visit to the vet his age was estimated at three to four months which meant he might have been born in July. And now to Blackie’s story – he was a stray wandering around my old neighborhood, too shy and frightened to trust anyone. A neighbor left cat food out for him and I would talk to him, but he kept his distance. My dog Kodi would stand by the fence and put his paw through – reaching out to the shy dog. I kept talking to him, Kodi was working his doggy-magic and slowly he came closer, standing in the street and watching. I was worried about what might happen to him; one day I was gardening in the front yard when a creep visiting across the street started to drive toward the black stray – until he saw me glaring at him and brandishing a shovel. The next day the dog moved closer to fence, that afternoon I open the gate and he came in. He was greeted by my dogs -  with joy by Kodi, Rollie was grouchy, as usual, and Posie was a bit snooty. Molly the cat watched from the roof. The black dog greeted his new buddies, ate his fill of food and seemed to relax, he just sighed and the tension went out. Then there was the matter of a name… He was BLACK! The only things that weren’t black were his white teeth and sweet brown eyes – so he was named Blackie. The day he walked through the gate was July 4th, which became his birthday, now that birthday has been handed down to another dear dog who was in such need of a home.

Welcome to my studio

Follow Brownie down the path…

 

Through the woods…

 

And over the stream…

 

To a little shed in a sunny clearing

 

A bit of inspiration in a corner – a thangka from Nepal with an image of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, and his flaming sword of truth to remind me to keep it real and Cyndi Lauper to remind me to keep it fun!

 

A picture titled “Acetylene” is an inspiration to Oberon…

 

 

 

 

Evermore  the raven has a perch near the eaves

 

A favorite green shelf and a red organizer help keep things tidy

 

A flowery chandelier adds colour

 

More shelves and lots of stuff

 

One end of the work bench with boxes of beads underneath

 

 

A board to organize projects

 

A necklace in progress

 

Detail of the pendant

 

The other end of the work bench with a bead loom

 

Mariba hangs out on the kiln

 

Titania likes to take a nap in the dirt while I work…

 

And Brownie says arf, arf! (Come back soon)

Thank you for stopping by!

It’s been a while…

My studio is still “under construction” – a disaster with the paint on the workbench led to stripping and repainting - all this time projects are waiting patiently in boxes. There are, however, plenty of new ideas and lots of inspiration; bib necklaces are popular, the new magazine “Jewelry Affaire” has lots of beautiful examples. The crescent shape is flattering and easy to wear – it’s also a great surface for decoration.

 

These are small necklaces made of hand painted silk, a few beads for sparkle and twisted cords.

My mother painted the silk and I made the necklaces, some have coordinating blouses.

It’s fun to wear two or thee at the same time.

 

 

This is a necklace on the matching top

and by itself

 

 

This is a larger necklace of raw silk, it has a bark-like look because of the  rough textured silk.

A detail of the embroidery -

 

These are fun to wear – even with tee shirts – and I’m going to make more!

Where Bloggers Create II

Get ready for fun! Karen of My Desert Cottage is hosting a studio tour party for bloggers – share your room, closet, corner of the garage, garden shed or dining table. Show off your creations  and visit other studios – meet crafters from every corner of Blogland! The party is on Saturday, June 19, 2010, see you there!

Studio continued…

 

 

The redecorating is going – slowly, it’s weekend work. I can hardly wait to see it finished!

 

 

The workbench had a lot to do with starting this project – it was originally in a computer repair shop and then it spent some time in the yard; I was so happy to have place to work I didn’t bother to finish the rough surface but it’s hard to clean. So it’s sand and spackle, sand and spackle.

 

 

 

When the spackle is dry and the sanding is finished the bench gets a couple of coats of “Gripper” which is my favorite under coat. I used it on an old, stained maple bookcase under an off-white top coat – the stains and rust have never come thru and the bookcase lives under an evaporative cooler – nothing survives the cooler – and it looks just as good as the day it was painted.

 

 

 

Outside my parsley “forest” has decided to bolt, every single parsley stalk is blooming and all of these plants came from one delicious flat leaf plant.

 

 

 

Okay, time to get back to work – off to the salt mine!